Turkish regional airline Borajet has ratified an agreement to acquire four E190s as part of an initiative to gradually upgrade its turboprop fleet, add capacity and frequencies, and grow its network from its base at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. The airline is acquiring the 100-seat, single-class E190s through a third party lease agreement. The first E190 revenue flight is slated to begin this month.

“We welcome Borajet as the first Turkey-based E-Jet operator. The country has tremendous potential because of the large number of cities that are ideally sized for the E190,” said John Slattery, Chief Commercial Officer, Embraer Commercial Aviation. “The range of the aircraft, its reliability and its trademark level of cabin comfort will be a welcome addition to travelers in the region.”

Borajet will join a family of 65 airlines from 45 countries that have already embraced the
E-Jets philosophy and fly them in low-cost, regional and mainline business applications. Since entering revenue service in 2004, Embraer has received some 1.470 orders for
E-Jets. More than 1,000 have been delivered.

“We are eager to start operations with our first jet aircraft and delighted, specifically, that the type selected is the E190 – chosen for its performance, comfort, plus the fact that it offers the best economics in its class,” said Fatih Akol, CEO of Borajet. “We will now be able to offer our passengers new destinations that were not possible to reach with our current fleet of turboprops due to the challenging and varied topography of the region.”

Embraer press release